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Friday, July 27, 2007

Portugal. The Man - Church Mouth

Portugal. The ManChurch Mouth(2007, Fearless)8.5/10

The new release from the beloved cross-genre darlings, Portugal. The Man has been released this week. Their last album, Waiter: "You Vultures!," stole my heart in one fell swoop (even though I usually don't pander towards Fearless releases) and many critics felt the same way. Portugal. The Man has somehow found a way to make post punk interesting and accessible to the masses of indie pop lovers. Church Mouth is everything you came to love about Portugal. The Man, except it lacks some of the creativity and diversity that made Waiter: "You Vultures!" so appealing. However, whatever it is lacking in creativity it makes up in soul. This new album shows a bluesy side of the band that we had only seen glimpses of in the previous release. You can hear their cited influence, Muddy Waters, bleeding into this album. It sounds as if they had been heavily influenced by the deep south blues culture, which is strange, considering they are all Alaskan natives. Expect to be drawn into their catchy, dirty rock on Church Mouth. Its epic rock mixed with blues guitars and innovative vocal melodies are sure to make an instant fan out of most listeners.